3. Use salt

4. Choose simple recipes

I rarely use onion in my recipes. If I do use garlic, mostly you can leave it out. So have a browse through the recipes on Stonesoup and pick a few that sound good to you.

It’s won’t take long to build a repertoire of new favourites that work for you.

5. My Favourite Onion Substitutes

Chopped chives – added at the end of a dish are amazing for giving a little oniony flavour kick.

Green Onion Tops – (pictured below) the green parts are fine for low FODMAPs. The flavour is stronger than chives so they’re my go-to when I want a bigger oniony boost.

6. My Favourite Garlic Substitutes

Garlic oil – you can buy commercial garlic oils, but I just marinate a few crushed cloves of garlic in olive oil for as long as I’ve got. Sometimes 10 minutes sometimes overnight. Then discard the garlic and use the beautifully flavoured oil.

7. My Favourite Tomato Substitutes

To be honest, I haven’t had to avoid tomato so this list is more from where I would start, rather than actual experience.

Tomatoes provide sweetness and also umami (or savouriness) to a dish. So think about how you can add both of these elements.

I wish cruise ship kitchens would read this article. We go on long cruises, and their over-use of tomatoes got me thoroughly sick of canned ones. My sister can no longer eat alliums. I think it’s allergies that developed late in life, but I will share with her the garlic oil idea, in case she wants to try that to see if it works for her. This is a very useful post. Thank you!

Hello, be careful if you,make garlic oil. It’s not safe to drop garlic in the oil. There is a risk of botulism. It is necessary to ferment the garlic first in salt and waterne then you can use it to flavor the oil. Thank you for your blog. Have a nice day !

Hi! You asked for users to comment with dietary constraints. I really struggle with mine in cooking and eating at restaurants. I have an extreme sensitivity to capsaicin and a few aromatics like garlic, ginger, and clove to the point where even black pepper can cause my taste buds to swell and die. I tend to use salts and smoke for flavoring but I’d like to have more variety in food without it feeling bland. So many dishes are built around spices like curry and chili which I can’t work with. Any help would be much appreciated!

I though the FODMAP protocol was tricky for eating out – Black pepper and ginger, garlic and cloves would be tough in restaurants.

For home cooking though you have so many options. I’d really focus on all the herbs. They are amazing for adding fragrance and depth of flavour. And the other thing I’d think about for you is things that have a lot of umami (savoury) flavours so parmesan cheese, mushrooms, tomato paste, soy sauce, miso..

It does make restaurants a challenge although it’s easier on the wallet :) silver lining. Those are some great suggestions and I really appreciate it! I am a texture person so I can’t wait to try the roast nuts. I’ve never cooked with miso. I think I’ve had a soup with miso but I stopped when I ran into tofu *cringe* that doesn’t have a nice texture.

I used to have a really nasty allium intolerance, so garlic, chive, leeks, shallots, and especially onions were major sources of problems when I cooked. A lot of the recipes on your blog actually helped me, especially the older five ingredient ones, because there were so few ingredients and so many substitution options. I used carrots and celery in many of my dishes to add an aromatic to the base without onions.

I am intolerant to garlic and dairy. How would garlic oil be different from cooking with garlic? How do you ferment the garlic to make it work? I work around the garlic with other spices, but, my husband sure misses it!

Garlic oil just has the flavour compounds infused in it without the physical garlic solids – which cause problems for people with IBS. It depends on the reason for your garlic intolerance whether garlic oil would be OK for you Cynthia.

I have had to learn to cook Fodmap foods due to my job for 1 out of 3 clients. It can be hard when most of the food I cook with at home consists of putting garlic or other spices in. The tomatoes dont really matter to me because I am still learning to like them. It is just hard when only certain and a low variety of foods are bought for the house where you work and all the recipes online consist of garlic or onion. Slowly finding recipes.

I come from a family where some of us are intolerant to garlic and onion and have found the spice asafoetida to be a great replacement to them. It’s also reputed to be good for your digestion and can relieve the symptoms or IBS.